The Building: a historical approach

he Museu Fundación
Juan March is housed
in a stately seventeenthcentury
mansion on
Calle Sant Miquel, an
important thoroughfare
in the historic quarter of Palma. The
building is popularly known as Can
Gallard del Canyar after the family
who occupied it until 1916, when it
was purchased by the Fundación Juan
March’s founder, Juan March Ordinas.
The "modest dwelling Of the Gallard
del Canyar" was rebuilt In the second
third of the eighteenth century, when
an adjoining building was added to
the original house. In the nineteenth
century two alterations were carried
out. The first took place in the middle
of the century, when the house was
remodeled. The second reform dates
from around 1897, when a few meters
of the façade were expropriated
from the owner, Josep Dezcallar i de
Togores,1 in order to widen the street. 2.

View of the front courtyard (photo: Miquel Seguí)

In the twentieth century, Juan
March, the mansion’s new owner,
proceeded to refurbish the old building.
The project was commissioned to
the Majorcan architect Guillem
Reynés Font.3 The purpose of this
rehabilitation was to accommodate the
family on the upper floors and to turn
the ground floor into office space for
March’s financial activities, which led
to the establishment of Banca March in
1926, from which point on the building
became the bank’s headquarters.

Reynés Font (1877−1918), son
of master builder Gaspar Reynés
Coll (1845−1911), began his studies
in Barcelona and, following a fouryear
period at Madrid´s School of
Architecture, obtained his degree in
1905. He settled in Palma that same
year and lived there until 1918, when he
died from the influenza epidemic that
spread across Europe following World
War I. On the island of Majorca he
worked both for the Civil Construction
Services of the Provincial Council
of the Balearic Islands and as a
diocesan architect in Majorca and
Ibiza. In addition, he worked on
private commissions. At first these
consisted of small assignments
—simple housing structures and
minor renovations for Palma’s middle
class promoters. However, this line
of work grew in importance as he
received commissions from dealers,
industrialists and businessmen, among
whom was the financier Juan March.

On account of his having studied
both in Madrid and Barcelona,
Reynés Font combined two styles
of architecture in vogue at the time:
modernism and traditionalism. His
early projects show the influence of
professors such as Lluís Domènech
i Montaner, from the Barcelona School
of Architecture, and in particular
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet and Joan Rubió
i Bellver.4 His association with these
architects may explain why he was
initially inclined towards modernism.
However, his relationship with Vicente
Lampérez y Romea, professor at the
Madrid School of Architecture,
and the emergence of traditionalist
ideas—which spread rapidly by way
of publications, congresses, exhibitions
and public competitions—soon drew
him towards regionalism. In fact,
Reynés Font participated in the
competition La Casa Antigua Española
[The Old Spanish House], organized
by the Architecture Department of
Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes in
1913, in which he won Third Prize with
his study on Can Solleric. According
to the conditions of entry of the
competition, the participants were to
submit "a graphic description—along
the lines of an artistic monograph—of
historic, stately, Or manor houses of
some importance, always beautiful And
interesting buildings, found in villages
And regions across Spain."5

View of the inner courtyard
skylight (photo: Miquel Seguí)

Reynés Font worked tirelessly. Over
a period of just thirteen years, spanning
from 1905 to 1918, he produced a
great deal of architectural, as well as
intellectual, work. He was committed
to very different fields—language,
politics, heritage and history—and
eventually became a prominent
and acclaimed architect whose fame
reached outside the Balearic Islands.

Juan March Ordinas (1880−1962)
left his hometown of Santa Margalida
(Majorca) in 1916 to settle in Palma,
the capital of the Balearic Islands.
Upon his arrival, he became acquainted
with Reynés Font. The architect was
then commissioned to renovate Can
Gallard del Canyar, the building March
had purchased to use as his residence
in the capital. March also put Reynés
Font in charge of a second project: a
summer villa in Sa Torre Cega, on the
coast of Capdepera, the birthplace of
his wife Leonor Servera Melis. Reynés
Font concluded both projects in 1916.

Construction work on Can
Gallard del Canyar finished in 1917,
as reflected in the press. Following
Reynés Font’s death, architect Guillem
Forteza carried out a smaller-scale
modification focusing on Banca
March’s office facilities, located
on the ground floor, and the iron
gate grille on Calle Confraria.6

The renovation work carried out
by Reynés Font did not affect the
building’s structure, as it centered
on the roof and the stairway leading
to the upper stories. In order to
disguise the slant of the walls, Reynés
Font roofed the front courtyard with
an oval skylight. As for the main
staircase, built in white marble, he
followed the distinctive structure used
customarily in the stately mansions
of Palma. Nevertheless, significant
alterations were made to the building’s
layout by means of partition walls.
The woodwork and the floors were
completely restored; modern hygiene
equipment, heating and kitchen
facilities were installed; and the
decorative elements were altered
following both local and foreign
traditions, such as the Louis XVI style.

As noted in previous studies,
"the architect managed To imbue the
building with an imposing, dignified,
And elegant appearance, paying special
attention to decorative detail."7 To
this end, Reynés Font not only worked
with a large team of technicians,
construction operators, craftsmen
and artists, but also collaborated
with important workshops and local
companies. Joan Juan Mezquida
worked as technical architect and
Antoni Jiménez Vidal was the
draughtsman of the project. The Pedro
Ávila workshop, based in Barcelona,
made the plaster moldings for the walls
and ceilings; Juncosa and Sacristá,
the carpentry and tapestry; and
Rigalt, Granell y Cía., the windows
and skylights. Antonio Quintana’s
Majorcan company supplied the tiles
and other building material, while
Miquel Rigo provided the ironwork
for the staircase and windows. The
decorative dining room paintings were
commissioned to Catalan artist Darius
Vilàs, and Faust Morell executed the
living room paintings. Sebastià Alcover
was in charge of the sculptures of
the façade on Calle Confraria, while
Gabriel Moragues executed those in
the inner courtyard. Finally, Lluís Bru
Salelles designed the decorative mosaic
tiles for the floors and flowerpots.

Bru Salelles was a decorator
and mosaic manufacturer from
Valencia who specialized in Roman,
Venetian and ceramic style mosaics
for pavements and murals. He had
many years of experience in the
craft, having carried out most of
his work in Catalonia, where he
worked for modernist architects Lluís
Domènech i Montaner and Josep
Puig i Cadafalch, and he collaborated
with Reynés Font on the restoration
of a chapel at La Sang de Palma
church. He subsequently worked
under Luis Gutiérrez Soto on the
March Palace on Calle Conqueridor.

The following passage illustrates
the close relationship Reynés Font
established with his contributors.
The subject of this letter, written by
painter Darius Vilàs in Barcelona in
1916 and addressed to Reynés Font,
was the execution of the dining room
frieze for the March Palace. The letter
illustrates how Vilàs conceived the
iconographic program and informs
Reynés Font of the delivery of a set of
decorative drawings that would later
come together in a single design.
The building, whose remodeling
under Reynés Font relied on the close
collaboration of craftsmen, decorators
and artists, has undergone further
alterations over the years. The most
significant of these took place in 1990,
when it was reconditioned to house
the Fundación Juan March’s collection
of Spanish contemporary art. On this
occasion, the entire structure was
modified, with the exception of the
inner courtyard and the staircase,
the rooms on the ground floor—which
continue to house the offices of the first
branch of Banca March—the façades
and the roofs. Between 1996 and 2003
further reform work was carried out to
accommodate new exhibition halls as
well as spaces destined for other uses.7

8 We wish to express our gratitude to
Guillem Reynés Corbella and Guillem
Reynés Muntaner, who have loaned
illustrations and documents from
the Guillem Reynés Font Archive for
this publication. We would also like
to thank Miquel Frau Segura for his
assistance in the selection of images
and their computer processing.